ALŽBĚTA WOLFOVÁ
INSECT GAZE
Alžběta Wolfová was born in 1993 in the Czech Republic and is a graduate of the Beaux-Arts in Paris and the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague.
Alžběta Wolfová has exhibited at the Czech Centre in Paris, the Palais des Beaux-Arts, as part of the ICART Artistik Rezo prize, and at the Minotaure gallery. She won a commission to create a work for the new Neuflize OBC head office. In the summer of 2023 she was part of the COAL project exhibition at the Collection Société Générale, curated by Lauranne Germond. Alongside her independent research in the photographic laboratory, she is also developing a collaborative and collective activity, curating exhibitions such as “Poltergeists” and “Contre-Espaces” at the PhotoSaintGermain festival with Alain Berland, and the Art for Ukraine charity evenings at the Czech Cultural Centre in Paris.
The question of how humans relate to animals, and how we choose to represent them, is central to the artist‘s work. According to Marjorie Bertin “Artificial mise-en-scène also raises questions about the notion of the animal-machine, which mechanises nature and transmutes the body into a complex assembly of cogs and spare parts.” Playing with light, bright colours and reflection effects, she casts a magical veil over reality. Her practice, in which colour plays a central role, is inspired by the first silver photographic techniques developed in the 19th century, which she transforms: Wolfová uses analogue filters and tricks to manipulate the image.
Insect Gaze explores the relationship we have with an animal that is often scorned and even objectified: the insect. Alžběta Wolfová shifts the focus of her sensitive work and sets herself the task – which she herself describes as improbable – of making the vision of insects visible in order to show what is significant on the scale of the animal.
The interactions between humans and insects, the relationship between researchers and their model animal, and the notions of monstrosity, transformation and manipulation are the main themes addressed in this project.
Alžběta Wolfová uses a range of devices, from silver laboratory photograms to 3D modelling, as well as a set of coloured filters during the shooting process, to propose a set of visual hypotheses that are all scientific-poetic attempts to capture the insect’s gaze.
This project was developed in collaboration with researchers from the CRCA (Animal Cognition Research Centre): Renaud Bastien and Raphaël Jeanson, Hervé Brustel from École Purpan, the team at the Toulouse Museum and the Victor Brun Natural History Museum in Montauban.
